This week, we had fun learning about families of all kinds! On Monday, we read “Mama, Do You Love Me?,” a story about an Inuit mother and child. We also observed the 2 Monarch butterflies that had emerged from their chrysalis’ over the weekend! The students practiced their scientific inquiry skills by coming up with “I wonder” statements about butterflies and caterpillars. On Tuesday, we read “Hush!,” a Thai lullaby about a mother and baby. We also introduced sticks on the playground along with our stick safety rules: keep the stick low to the ground and move with it slowly (“low and slow”), cover the points of the stick when traveling if possible, and make sure you have “bubble space” when moving with the stick. The students did well remembering the rules, and they built an amazing house for a squirrel! There was excellent collaboration, persistence, and scientific thinking involved in this construction process. On Wednesday, we read “Jonathan and His Mommy,” a story about a little boy who lives in the city and loves to go on special walks with his mom. On the playground, we took sticks out again, and the children built a different kind of squirrel house, focusing this time on creating shelter from rain. On Thursday, we read “Hands and Hearts,” a story about a mother and daughter who speak to each other using sign language. We also had music class with Mrs. Duvall which the students were incredibly engaged with! This class loves music! On Friday, we read “The Hello, Goodbye Window,” a story about a little girl who loves spending time at her Nana and Poppy’s house. Since the weather was beautiful, we spent the majority of our day outside! Next week, we will start learning about Fall and the changes that the season brings!

This week was busy and exciting! On Monday, some students started their All About Me books. We also celebrated a birthday! On Tuesday, we came to school to find that a butterfly had hatched out of the chrysalis that Mr. Matt brought in! It was very crumpled and wet, so it could not fly yet. We all became scientists and observed the butterfly as well as the chrysalis’ and the caterpillar that we had in the science center. Later, we read “Monarch Butterflies” by Gail Gibbons, and learned about the metamorphosis that monarch caterpillars go through in order to become butterflies! We also played a game called Jumping Beans which starts with a story about my mother giving me magic jumping beans (which the students pretend to be), and me not believing that they are magic. Every time I turn my back on the “beans”, they jump, but whenever I turn back to look at them, they are still! The students had fun with this game, and we talked about ways to be safe while playing games like this. On Wednesday, we celebrated another birthday! We also read the book “Chrysanthemum” by Kevin Henkes, a story about a little mouse named Chrysanthemum who gets teased about her name at school, but eventually learns to love her name because it makes her unique. We talked about kindness and individuality throughout the story. On Thursday, we came to school to find that another butterfly had hatched! This one was not crumpled, so we were able to observe it’s beautiful colors and patterns. At recess, we brought the butterfly outside and released it in the flower garden. We also had our first music class with Mrs. Duvall on Thursday! She taught us some very fun songs and led us in a fun rhythm game! On Friday, Ms. Rice had a friend’s wedding to attend, so Ms. Becka, our classroom assistant from last year, came back to sub! Next week, we will continue working on our All About Me books, and we will talk about families.

We had a wonderful first week of preschool this week! On Tuesday, we talked about our new classroom guidelines: Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Gentle. We started by talking about what it means to be safe. The students brainstormed what it looks like to be safe on the playground, and they came up with some important ideas to help keep their classmates safe. We also read the story “Franklin Goes to School” and talked about the big emotions that can come with the first day of school. On Wednesday, we talked about the meaning of kindness. Again, students came up with some wonderful examples of what kindness could look like in our classroom. We made it our mission to notice kindness throughout the day, and wow do we have a kind group of kids this year! On the playground, the students were introduced to loose parts by using our PVC pipes and connectors as well as some small objects like different-sized rocks and acorns. It was amazing to see how they used those materials! There was talk of fort-building and rain collection, the challenge of creating a stable structure, the discovery of the way that different objects move through the tubes, and amazing perseverance! Some big kids even came over to join in the fun! On Thursday, we celebrated Grace’s birthday by having a special birthday snack and reading our new favorite birthday book, “Happy Birthday Hamster.” We also started our new birthday tradition of having the student who’s birthday it is hold a globe and walk around the “sun” one time for every year of their life while the teacher talks about one thing that the student did during that year. This is a Montessori tradition that I recently learned, and I love how it helps children understand how the Earth orbits the sun, as well as the fact that they are continuously growing and learning new things! On Friday, we talked about what it means to be gentle. Students came up with their own examples during morning meeting. At story time, we read “Hugopotamus,” a story about a Hippo who loves giving hugs, but his hugs are too rough, so his friends feel scared to play with him. By the end, the hippo learns to be gentle, and his friends love playing with him and receiving his gentle hugs. After the story, we went outside and played a game that centers around gentleness. I introduced my friend Otis (a teddy bear that is usually in the quiet space in the classroom), and told the students that Otis loves getting gentle hugs. I passed Otis around the circle and each kid gave him a very gentle hug while Otis gave them feedback about how gentle they were being. Once Otis had been passed around, he told the group that he knew he could trust them to be gentle, so he was wondering if they could give him a gentle ride on a parachute. I took out the parachute and the students shook it very gently while Otis told them how much fun he was having. If a student shook the parachute too hard, Otis told them he was feeling scared and wanted them to shake it more gently. The students did an amazing job with this game! We will continue working on the concepts of safe, kind, and gentle throughout the year using games like this one. Next week, we will start our All About Me unit which centers around the uniqueness of each child and what makes them the person that they are.

Playing with Play-Doh in the art center

Loose parts construction workers ready to build!